Are your required to respond to every question?

[mozartbach1971]

I heard that you need to respond as soon as possible to a buyer's question in order to improve your ranking. Sometimes I respond and then the buyer sends back several more messages or questions after. Sometimes I don't respond. When you don't do this does this affect your ratings?

[12345jamesstamps]

No...I never heard that.

In my own opinion...just my own opinion now...too many emails from a buyer who hasn't purchased anything yet I prefer not to sell to them...and I usually block them...just my opinion.

[lakefor94]

To my knowledge,  no, unanswered questions don't effect seller ratings or search placement.

With your items, I could see questions coming up.

[adkhighker]

I don't know anything about being required to answer a buyer's question, but in the rare instances when I get a question, I respond to each and every one. Whenever I do a listing, I spend way too much time thinking about my descriptions and sometimes I can get a little long winded when describing flaws, but that's why I rarely get questions.  Anyway, whether it's required or not, I think it would serve you well to respond to all the questions. Most people really appreciate it when someone gets back to them. 

[toysaver]

Most of the questions I get are already answered in the listing.  I'm left realizing the potential buyer is either an idiot or a scammer and I subsequently block them.  

[stainlessenginecovers]

Since there is almost no question that is not already answered on my listings- I just respond with

'did you read the description?' 

[fern*wood]

This came up a few months ago when some sellers started seeing average response time on their listings somewhere.  I never saw it, but someone that was opted in looked at my listings and told me my response time was showing as 3 hours.   I haven't heard much about this since, so the test may have gone away.

Anyway, a rep was tagged to answer whether or not subsequent "unanswered" questions that appear, which were only thank yous or didn't need a response, would hurt this metric and the rep said no.  They also stated this wasn't going to be a metric used against us, but just some info for buyers or something like that. 

[legalbeagle52]

@mozartbach1971 

I do answer questions.  I always thank them for their interest.  I agree that people appreciate you taking the time to answer them back. I will often get a "thank you" just for responding, even if they don't buy. They may save me as a seller & come back later to buy a different item. I've had it happen.   I think many people are surprised that we answered back.  It's a 'good look' for Ebay to have a reputation for having responsive & nice sellers.

However after the first question, I would only answer a second one IF it seems reasonable to you.  Use your judgement.  If it starts to get annoying & you don't feel they are serious, you can always block them.   But think twice because some of them may actually end up buying.  Some may just be "nervous nellies' and ask a lot of questions, it doesn't always mean they will be problematic buyers.   Just my 2cents ... I realize that not everyone will agree.

[rosszonebricks]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

Since there is almost no question that is not already answered on my listings- I just respond with

'did you read the description?' 

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I used to *think* that often with questions asked (never rude enough to actually respond with it though).

It's worth keeping in mind that eBay itself BURIES your description and on mobile devices it's even WORSE.  You actually have to scroll, find the tiny tiny words that say 'see description' and THEN you can start hoping they can read. 

That said, back on topic:

I always answer questions in a professional manner, and as quickly as possible.

If they say 'thanks' or some other reply that does not need a response I will 'mark question as answered', also as quickly as possible.

I don't think we'll ever know for sure, but always felt like letting messages sit there unread/unanswered (or not marked as answered) does impact your rating somehow.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

I read that on another similar post recently.

I'm not 24/7 here and I don't use my phone for eBay.  We all have a personal life, family, and other things to do and to be taken care of outside of eBay. 

Sometimes I will just mark answered depending on the issue such as too many questions as if the buyer is trying to set me up. I then add to my block list. 

There are many scenarios that sellers will experience and have to decide themselves how to handle and move on. 

If eBay has such a policy, they might want to look in the mirror. 

[cardsforauction]

If you do decide to answer the buyer's question, don't be like the seller I came across.  I asked a question when the auction was still active about condition of the item, and he did not respond until after the auction was over 3 months later.  The seller wants to make some kind of joke, seems mean-spirited to answer months after the auction ended (whats the point? I can't  bid on the item) or the seller thought they have to answer because eBay would ding them for not answering potential buyer questions. 

[deltilogical]

"Most of the questions I get are already answered in the listing."

I get that too - I think people see the wall of ads and (logically) they don't think anything is below the wall of ads.  But alas, the wall of ads is in the middle of the listing.  

The wall of ads from which the seller gets absolutely no value other than negative.   

[bennotbill]

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@mozartbach1971 wrote:

I heard that you need to respond as soon as possible to a buyer's question in order to improve your ranking.

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Wasn't that an Etsy thing?

[mozartbach1971]

I've watched videos where some people said that the algorithm favors those who respond quickly to questions.  I don't think I've heard any direct  confirmation from Ebay about this however.

[a_c_green]

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@legalbeagle52 wrote:

However after the first question, I would only answer a second one IF it seems reasonable to you.  Use your judgement.  If it starts to get annoying & you don't feel they are serious, you can always block them.   But think twice because some of them may actually end up buying.  Some may just be "nervous nellies' and ask a lot of questions, it doesn't always mean they will be problematic buyers.

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Oh, yeah... back in my Contract Tech Support days, we were obliged to answer every customer email because, well, that's what they were paying us for. But we also practiced what we called "tarpitting," which would guard against an initial contact turning into an endless conversation (since we always had other customers needing attention as well).

The first question would always get answered promptly, even if it was either a no-brainer or something requiring more research. If more research would be needed, we would still send a "grunt" in reply first, which was our shorthand for a message that simply acknowledged their question and said that we would reply further after we had investigated. (This is similar to the way eBay contacts here say that they will refer our questions to one or more "teams" and let us know when they get more info, even though they never do get anything in reply. 😉)

So after the first response had gone back to the customer, they would often reply right away with either a Thank You (for which we would close out the case in our tracking system) or some followup questions. That's fine; the first answer might trigger further questions on some details, and we'd handle those promptly too.

But then... if a third reply comes back from the customer, that's when we might start dragging our feet. At this point, either the customer is demonstrating cluelessness or our initial solution is not working out. If they're clueless, the tarpitting begins: we might hold off on another answer until End of Business that day. Further immediate replies from them will trigger slower and slower responses (or else we request a conference call to straighten things out). 

So basically, you'd get two prompt answers from us per problem report, and then if you're not holding up your end and at least trying to work the solution you've been given, we're just going to have to back away.